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June 07, 2006
Mosquito Disco Death
The Mega Catch arrived on Monday. It was a much needed pick-me-up after a very bad day of breaking cabinets. I immediately assembled it and put it in the backyard. I noticed a few details that were not available online.
First is the liquid trap. I had assumed this was some special stuff that was sold separately. In fact it is a deadly cocktail of tap water, dish soap, and soda pop. The soap is to break surface tension, but the only thing I know about the pop is that it must not be diet. If this thing was made by an American company, the liquid would be packaged and sold for $10 a gallon.
The net is an inferior catch but is provided for easier identification of species. Indeed, they don't look much like mosquitoes after soaking for a while. I tried fishing them out with a plastic knife at the dinner table. This is one of those times when it's nice to have a wife around to point out when I'm acting like a crazy person. I'm pretty sure we caught an albino mosquito (which replaced the Trammps song that was stuck in my head with a Nirvana song).
Second is the attracting lights. When I switched it on, red, green, and blue lights started flashing like the encore at a Duran Duran show (yes I'm that old). I checked inside for a disco ball. Nope, but it is lined with foil for a similar effect. A pattern of colored lights danced on the nearby fence and I wondered if I had just been hoodwinked out of 200 bucks. I chose a shady location near the source, where the lights won't wake the neighbors.
Third is the timer. Why would a mosquito trap have a 7-day programmable timer? Maybe some people don't want to kill mosquitoes on Sunday? Or maybe they want to save energy on Tuesday, when mosquitoes typically stay home for dinner.
Twelve hours later we had about 40 dead mosquitoes floating in the trap. After 12 more hours we had about the same number. And at 36 hours, maybe 10 more were added to the tub. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or maybe we only had 50 or so mosquitoes. Three is a swarm as far as I'm concerned so 50 is a lot. Or maybe we just killed the 50 dumbest ones and the smart ones hang out by the trap to bite me on the ankles while I'm checking the tub for carcasses.
Posted by David at 02:50 PM | Comments (7)